


Kuroo, Kuro, Tetsurou, or love of my life?

by jellyfic



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Abundance of fluff, M/M, Nicknames, fluff overload, i still don’t know how to tag, it’s just kuroken being cute together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:13:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26009323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jellyfic/pseuds/jellyfic
Summary: First time Kenma called his best friend Kuro, and one time he got tired of using that nickname.
Relationships: Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou
Comments: 14
Kudos: 170





	Kuroo, Kuro, Tetsurou, or love of my life?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Carrochan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carrochan/gifts).



> Huge thank you to [Nation](https://twitter.com/itsNationJoy?s=21) for beta reading this for me!

Kenma hated being little. 

There was nothing fun about it, especially when everyone around him was way older than him. He wasn’t allowed to play games all day and couldn’t even play at night. He had to obey his parents, and sometimes even strangers or his teacher. He couldn’t even tell them no, he was too little to say no, that’s what his parents have always told him. He hated being little, being forced to listen to the oldest. 

That’s probably why he hated when people his age would call him Kozume. 

“But Kozume-kun!” Kuroo whined, letting his body fall dramatically on Kenma’s bed. “I can’t call you Kenma when you’re calling me Kuroo.” 

Kenma rolled his eyes, flopping down on his bed at his turn. “Yes, you can.” 

“No,” obstinate Kuroo said, shaking his head. “That wouldn’t be polite. Why don't you want to call me Tetsurou anyway?” 

Kenma wrinkled his nose, slightly turning his head to face Kuroo, who was looking at him already. “Too long. It’s tiring.” 

Kuroo groaned. “Come on. It’s not  _ that _ long, you’re just lazy.” 

“And what if I am? Your name would still be long,” Kenma countered, huffing and slowly getting impatient. 

Truly, they had been at it for more than thirty minutes now, arguing over how they should call each other. Until now, Kenma had been compliant enough to let Kuroo call him Kozume, but he was slowly getting annoyed by it. After all, Kuroo said they were best friends and would be until they grow old, so he better give up the Kozume act very quickly. 

Except that Kuroo didn’t want to call him Kenma because he thought it was disrespectful to call him as such when Kenma was calling him by his family name. And he didn’t want to admit it, but Kenma wasn’t even sure he could pronounce Kuroo’s given name correctly and didn’t want to make a fool of himself. 

“What about you call me Tetsu? Grandma always calls me Tetsu,” Kuroo suggested, rising on his elbows to have a better look at his friend. 

Kenma felt his cheeks heating and guessed they were turning a slight shade of pink as he disagreed. “Absolutely not.” 

“Why?” Kuroo whined again, flopping back desperately, probably getting impatient too. 

It was too embarrassing for Kenma to call his best friend such a cute and short name. It felt too intimate, too close. He wasn’t sure he was ready to call Kuroo that. He didn’t even want to think of all the times he would get flustered by it. He knew nobody would say anything since they were still little, but if Kenma kept the nickname when they grew up, he knew people would think it was weird. 

Prevention is better than cure. That was what his father kept telling him anyway. 

“I said no.” 

“We should do rock-paper-scissors,” Kuroo suggested, sitting up. “Whoever wins gets to choose the other’s nickname.” 

It was pretty tempting to say the least, but it was a luck game and Kenma didn’t like games which dwell on sheer luck. He sighed anyway, sitting up at his turn. 

“Rock.”

“Paper.”

“Scissors!” 

Kenma looked at his rock, frowning at Kuroo’s flat hand coming on top of his fist. Kuroo beamed, raising his hands in victory before pointing a finger at him. 

“I accept to call you Kenma. But in exchange, you shall address me as ‘Lord Mighty Tetsurou’!” Kuroo chanted, a proud and amused grin growing on his lips. 

Kenma put his nose up in the air. “I will not.” 

“Come on Kozume-kun! You can shorten it to LMT if you’d like!” 

“No.” 

Kuroo groaned, settling both hands on his hips. “That’s cheating! We agreed on letting the winner choose!” 

“I will not call you LMT.” 

“Fine!” Kuroo gave up, raising his hands in defeat. “Now what?” 

“Listen, you said we are best friends right?” Kuroo nodded as Kenma crossed his arms, talking seriously. “I do believe it too, because we could have the same number of letters in our name.” Kuroo’s brows shot up, curious, and Kenma had to bite back his grin. “Kenma is a five letter word. Just like Kuroo. That’s why we’re best friends. But that also means you have to call me Kenma for it to work!” 

Kuroo seemed to consider it, thinking rather intensely and narrowing his eyes at the ceiling. Just when Kenma thought he had won this round, Kuroo bit back. 

“It works with Tetsu too.” 

Kenma gritted his teeth, mad that he hadn’t thought about that before mentioning it to Kuroo. 

“Come on, I won’t call you Tetsu.” 

“Then I won’t call you Kenma.” 

Kenma pulled a bit on his hair, starting to go crazy. He was growing really upset about that stupid nickname. “I’m going to start and call you Kuro if you’re going to stay difficult all afternoon.” 

There was a moment of silence, and then. “It works for me.” 

Kenma looked at him in disbelief, eyes wide and mouth parted. “Are you- It sounds like a typo- I’m- I was kidding?” 

Kuroo only shrugged, smiling. “I know, but it sounds cool.” He extended his hand to Kenma before continuing. “How about you call me Kuro and I got to call you Kenma with the right to call you Kenma-kun from time to time?” 

Kenma wrinkled his nose, squinting at his best friend suspiciously. All in all, it was a fair option. He sighed. 

“Fine.” 

Kuroo raised his hand up in victory and he asked, hopeful. “Can you try it now?” 

“No.”

“Come on,” he smirked, speaking the nickname syllable by syllable. “Kenma-kun.” 

Kenma already regretted his choice. 

—

“Aren’t you tired of that nickname?” Kenma asked suddenly, breaking the silence they were comfortably snuggling in. He turned his head slightly to Kuroo, who teared his gaze away from the movie, brows raised. 

“What nickname?” 

“Kuro.”

“Yes?” Kuroo frowned, his tone conveying how confused he was at Kenma’s sudden interruption. 

Kenma rolled his eyes, sighing. “I meant, the nickname Kuro.” 

“Oh!” Kuroo chuckled, shaking his head at his own stupidity. His heart missed a beat at Kenma’s futile attempt at hiding his own smile. “No, why would I be?” 

Kenma shrugged, looking back at the screen and leaning his head back against Kuroo’s shoulder. “I never called you any different since you agreed with it.”

“We agreed on it together,” Kuroo pointed out and Kenma scrunched his nose up, “And I don’t see why you’d like to call me any different?”

Kenma cuddled closer, tentatively hiding his face behind his hair and against Kuroo’s skin. “You do it for me.” 

There was a small silence before Kuroo laughed slightly. “Aw Kenma, so you  _ do _ like the nicknames I come up with for you?” 

Kenma elbowed him, refraining himself to smile at his boyfriend’s teasing tone. “Shut up. It’s just-” Kenma bit his lip, feeling his cheeks heating as he buried his head deeper into Kuroo’s shoulders. “It’s not that I’m tired of it,” he muttered, voice muffled, “but I was thinking that maybe, you could have a different name. Not that I don’t like yours, but you know… It would be cool to be able to call you something else than Kuro, or Kuroo for that matter.”

The silence following his little speech felt unbearable, as he waited, eyes firmly closed, for any reactions. 

Kuroo shifted at his side, posing both hands on his shoulders to put space between them so they could face each other. “Kenma, kitten, sweetheart, my Kenma-kun, love of my life and the apple of my pie,” Kuroo started, provoking Kenma’s nose to raise up in the air, “are you asking me to marry you?” 

“Don’t make me take it back.” 

Kuroo laughed, and Kenma swore there were tears gathering up in his eyes as he pulled Kenma into a tight hug, both of them falling back on the couch. Warmth blanketed Kenma as he smiled, all previous anxiety gone. 

“Oh my god. I can’t believe this is happening. Yes! Kenma of course it’s a yes! I would love to be a Kozume!” 

Kenma laughed, heart burying out from joy as he put his arms around Kuroo’s waist. 

“I’m sure you’ll still call me Kuro though, it's buried in your heart.” Kenma rolled his eyes as he looked at Kuroo on top of him, smiling. 

“I won’t start calling you Kozume, that’s for sure.”

Kuroo tilted his head, smirking. “I won’t be against that.” 

Kenma shook his head, bringing his hands up to Kuroo’s cheeks, pulling him down into a kiss. They both couldn’t help but smile into it, feeling euphoric. They parted away, and Kuroo stared at him for a solid minute with heart eyes, before snorting:

“That was such a half-assed proposal though.” 

Kenma kicked him in the chest. “I take it back.” 

Kuroo plunged his head into Kenma’s neck, planting tiny kisses on his skin and laughing. “No takes back. I don’t have a receipt for a refund.” 

Kenma did think Kuroo deserved better than a half-added proposal though. So he proposed again two weeks later, wearing a fancy suit, posing a knee down, and holding a ring between his fingers. Kuroo cried as if Kenma hadn’t talked about the idea of marrying before. 

Still, he said yes again. 


End file.
